The Olympic Games

Over the past couple of weeks when I have the time I check the medal count for the Olympics to see how the US is doing. I’m always thrilled to see that the United States is winning in the medal count and individual events. Also, while watching the news and ESPN I have seen the debates about whether the medal count is still important. So I asked myself is the pride I get from seeing my count try on top just promoting a false sense of superiority and security or does success in the Olympics translate to political and economic success on the global scale. I believe the Olympics still carry the political importance just as they did during the World Wars and the Cold War.

The goings on in the world today might not be as threatening as they were 30-50 years ago but they are still important to the games. Just as the US’s improbable victory over the USSR in hockey was symbolic of the US becoming the only superpower and the fall of the USSR other countries defeating US in the present Olympic Games shows the decline of the American superpower. The victories that the Americans achieve are still important because they help to show that America is still one of the most dominant countries but the American loses show that they were not as strong as they once were and that other countries are on the rise.

The Olympics are further more politically important to this day because of the sense of nationalism that they instill in the citizens of each individual country. Seeing one’s country win creates a since of pride in the individual. As the games go on people continue to root for their country in each and every event they participate in. This creates a sense of nationalism in many countries because they unite as one against foreigners despite the bad situations they may face. This nostalgia from the games does not last forever but it eases some of the pressure on the governments and the people.

The medal count is still important because the sports are an institution in the world. Therefore dominance in sports translates to strength as a country. And they still remain important because of the nationalism that is created by the game. Therefore I encourage all of you to turn on the news or check online to see how your country is faring in the Olympics and cheer for your country.

Fox News

The other morning I couldn't find anything on TV so I decided to watch FOX News. I usually do not watch CNN, MSNBC, or FOX because of the propaganda going on between them and some of the polarizing views. But, on this day I choose to watch and Fox and Friends happened to be on. I was appalled when I saw the Gretchen Carlson having no clue what simple words meant and I recalled an episode of The Daily Show were she was talked about. So I did some research and found out that she was Miss America, went to Stanford, went to Oxford (the one in Britain), and she is a violinist and played the Ziguenerweisen (which is an extremely tough peace). So asked myself why would a woman with so much intelligence and being so accomplished pretend to be dumb? I came to the conclusion that FOX News must feel that women should not be portrayed as both or can not be both intelligent and attractive. In other words women are either intelligent and unattractive or they are bimbos. This is shown my Gretchen Carlson and Megyn Kelly (another anchor that attended Syracuse) pretending to be ignorant and trying to flaunt their appearance. On the other hand you have Greta Van Susteren who is highly knowledgeable and knows the legal system very well but she will not be seen as attractive by the majority of men in America. I feel that FOX News is setting women back many years by portraying this image because they are only instilling these ideals/beliefs into the people that watch it. Therefore, these women should take the responsibility upon themselves to display their intelligence and show that just because one is attractive doesn't mean that one has to be ignorant.

Education

Recently I was looking at the statuses that my friends in college were posting. The majority of my friends graduated last year. Some of them decided to take a semester off and some started immediately. When I was reading their statuses I was alarmed to see that a large amount of them were taking reading classes this semester or had done so last semester. These are students that recently graduated from high school yet they could not exempt the reading classes after taking the placement exams. This is due to education system we have in place. Instead of ensuring that students know the basic math skills, how to read, and how to write at an acceptable level through test schools would rather make homework and classwork a large percentage of the grade. I had classes where 40-60% of the grade was based on homework and classwork alone. To do this is outrageous because in no way does homework and classwork demonstrate one knowledge of the course material. These policies were put into place because students did not do well on test. So instead of improving teaching we lowered our standards and our expectations. Both of these are bad for the education of children because people tend to perform at the level you expect. For example if you expect someone to only make a D or a C in the class the student will give a D or a C effort. However, if you expect them to get an A and provide encouragement they will try harder in order to meet those expectations and in turn will earn a better grade. Therefore, I propose a new grading system be mandated across the country in which 60-80% of the students grade is compromised of test/quizzes and no more than 20% be allotted to homework and classwork. The remaining area can be devoted to projects.

Outsourcing

In this period of economic decline unemployment rates are high and jobs are continuously sent over seas. Although outsourcing provides America with more affordable products it also hurts America due to the loss of jobs and the potential increase in poverty as a result of this. This tendency will continue until their are only corporate, professional, and low skill jobs left (retail stores, fast food,etc.). In order to stop this the United States government needs to take action. They can do this by placing a new tariff on goods not produced in the United States. This new tariff would cover goods produced by American companies. However this tariff would only cover final goods and goods that were used or assembled to form final goods would not have a tax on them because the final production would be completed in the United States. This would result in jobs being brought back to America and it would serve as a way to generate revenue.
The potential downfalls of this plan are that it may hurt our relations with China and India because we would be taking jobs away from them. Another possibility is that the foreign nations would provide the American companies with greater incentives and thus result in the tariff having less effect. Lastly this change may lead to an increase in the price of goods in the United States whic